Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what measures her Department has put in place to ensure that funding provided by her Department and spent by foreign governments is used for its intended purposes.

DFID has introduced tighter ministerial controls and tough anti-corruption controls over spending decisions and we only provide aid direct to other governments where we are completely satisfied that the government shares our commitment to the UK’s four Partnership Principles - (1) poverty reduction, (2) respecting human rights, (3) improving public financial management, promoting good governance and transparency and fighting corruption, and (4) strengthening domestic accountability.

We have robust systems for carrying out due diligence and promoting use of funds as well as enhanced internal audit and rigorous external scrutiny.

DFID also carries out Fiduciary Risk Assessments which include an explicit assessment of corruption risk. These are subject to independent scrutiny. DFID provides financial aid, only where there is a credible programme to address weaknesses in public financial management.

All organisations which receive funding from DFID are required to provide evidence about the use of funds, including providing audited financial statements, and this is monitored as part of our monitoring of programme performance and delivery.

DFID has a range of audit processes:

· Internal Audit Department. DFID applies a risk based approach to planning its internal audit assignments: using risk registers and the audit committee.

· National Audit Office - The DFID Annual Report 2013-2014 which can be found on our website is subject to external audit by National Audit Office (NAO).

· The UK Government set up the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) to evaluate our work and report directly to Parliament. ICAI examines Official Development Assistance (ODA) across government although concentrates principally on DFID. ICAI reports on audits undertaken are publically available through their website.